The Vegetable Garden

Our efforts in the vegetable garden are very amateurish but sometimes they really pay off. These potatoes, a variety called Estima, were grown from eight miserable little seed potatoes bought for a pound from Poundstretcher in Fort William, yet....

....they produced just over 8kg of potatoes with hardly a blemish on them. The second row, a variety called Charlotte, has done equally well.

The summer weather so far hasn't been ideal for courgettes particularly as we grow them outdoors with no cover, yet the first ones are ready for the plate.

We, along with an unknown pest, possibly a small rabbit, have been eating kale for about two weeks. It's probably one of our most reliable vegetable crops which will keep producing for a couple of months, and we have a second small bed which is coming on well.

Thank goodness for the several berberis bushes, Berberis darwanii, in our front garden. Their purple berries provide a choice for the local blackbirds who would otherwise be gorging on what has been a good crop of raspberries and a not-so-good crop of strawberries, the latter badly affected by the weather.

The slugs and snails also enjoy strawberries, and the damp weather has suited them. They've also eaten so many of the brassica seedlings that we've had to re-plant broccoli and sprouts. However, we have several allies in the battle against slugs and snails, including toads and slow worms.